THE EAST PUNJAB DISPLACED PERSONS (LAND RESETTLEMENT) ACT, 1949

" [1949 : East Pb. Act XXXIV. DISPLACED PERSONS (LAND RESETTLEMENT) 439 THE EAST PUNJAB DISPLACED PERSONS (LAND Sections. E a d i B ° 0 N e 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. RESETTLEMENT) ACT, 1949. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Short title and extent. Definitions. Power of Custodian to earmark land in Shamilat. ° Right of allottee or lessee to possession. Rights and obligations of the present holder. Right of the allottee or lessee to a share in rent. Liability of the allottee or lessee. Liability of the sub-lessee of the present holder. Termination of leases of land by evacue¢es in favour non-evacuees. Delegation. Instruments not to require stamp and registration. Orders not to be called in question. Bar to legal proceedings. Power to make rules. Repeal. of [1949 - East Pb. Act XXXVI. bispLacep persons 441 (LAND RESETTLEMENT) "THE BAST PUNJAB DISPLACED PER RESETTLEMENT ) ACT. 1040 OS (LAND ‘EAsT PUNJAB Act No. XXXVI oF 1949, [Received the assent of His Exce 1 2 3 4 Year No. Short title Whether repealed or otherwise affectd by legislation 1949, | xXxxVI The East Punjab Amended in part by the Adaptation Displaced persons of Laws Order, 1950 (Land Resettlement) Act, 1949 Amended in part by Punjab Act XI of 19502 ' Amended in part by the Adaptation zl);sliaws(Thud Amendment) Order, Amended by the Punjab Reorganisation (Chandigarh) (Adaptation of Lawson f;%tsn and Concurrent Subject) Order, . An Act to provide for the a]lotmi_ant and leases of evacuee land in *[Punjab]. CItis hereby enacted as follows :— 1. (I) This Act may be called the East Punjab Dis- Short tite aad placed P(er)sons (Land Resettlement) Act, 1949, extent. (2) It shall extend to the whole of 4[Union Territory of Chandigarh]. t of Objects and Reasons, see East Punjab Government ~ Gazette (Exmérlifimfjf'aféig, opagas 1015-1016; for proceedings in the Assembly, see East Punjab Lcgislative Assembly Debates, Volume IV, 1949, pages (7)78—(7) 9. . . . ) ent of Objects and Reasons, see East Punjab Government Gazette (Extra;rl:ioi;:r'?;fn:%o, pages 222-223; for pmcee’dmgs inthe Assembly, see Punjab Legisjative Assembly Debates, Volume I, 1950, pages (20)38—(20)39. 2Substituted for the words “Bast Punjab” by the Adaptation of Laws (Third Amendment) Order, 1951. 4 ituted for the word ¢ Punjab’ by the Punjab Reorganisation (Chandi- garh) (glc‘lg;‘;‘tli:n o? Laws on State and coccurrent subjects Qrder, 1968. Definitions. 442 ISPLACED PERSONS [1949 - East Pb. Act XXxvy (LAND RESETTLEMENT) ‘ 2. In this Act, u:lless there is anythi ng repugnap " the subject or context, — (a) ©®) «the Principal Ordinance” means the Admipj tration of Evacuees Property Ordinance, 1949'; “allottee”” means a displaced person to wh, lggg is allotted by the Custodian under fp, conditions published with East Punjab Govern. ment Notification No. 4892/S, dated the gy, July, 1949, and includes his heirs, legal represep,. tatives and sub-lessees ; (¢) ““displaced person” means a land-holder in the territories now comprised in the province of ![Punjab in Pakistan] or a person of Punjabi extraction who holds land in the Provinces of North-West Frontier Province, Sind or Baluchistan or any State adjacent to any of the aforesaid Provinces and acceding to * ¥ 2+ x » Pakistan, and who has since the 1st day of March, 1947, abandoned or been made to abondon his land in the said territories on account of civil disturbances, or the fear of such disturbances, or the partition of the country ; (d) “land” means land which is not urban land _— . Substituted for the and is not occupied as the site of any building In a town or village and is occupied or let for agricultural purposes or for purposes sub- servient to agriculture or for pasture, and in- cludes— (@) the sites of buildings and other structures on such Jand ; (i) ashare in the profit of an estate or holding ; () any dues or any fixed ercentage of land revenye );)ayable gy an inferior landowner to a superior landowner ; —e . ind Amendment) Order, 195, "¢t Punjab™ by the Adaptation of L8 *Tho words “the . i 1 el . t WS (Third Amendment) Order, 1597700 oF" omitted by tho - Adaptayion of L9 N 1949 : East Pb. Act XXXVL] DispLaceD persons 443 (LAND RESETTLEMENT) () a right to receive rent ; and (v) any right of occupancy ; (e) “lessee” means a displaced I person to whom land is leased by the Custodian under the conditions published with East Punjab Government notification No. 4891 /S, dated the 8th July, 1949, and includes his heirs, legal representatives and sub-lessees ; (f) “present holder” means a person who is in oc- cupation of the land allotted or leased to an allottee or lessee, as the case may be ; (g) “Rehabilitation Authority” includes Financial Commissioner, Rehabilitation, the Commis- sioner of the Division, Director-General, Rehabilitation, Deputy Commissioner andAddi- tional Deputy Commissioner of a district , Assis- tant Collectors of the first and second grades and a District Urban Resettlement Officer ; (h) ‘““urban land” means all land included within the limits of a Corporation, Municipal Committee, Notified Area Committee, Town Area, Small Town Committee and Cantonment as these limits stood on the 15th of August, 1947 ; and (i) words and expressions used in this Act but not defined, have the meaning assigned to them in the pincipal Ordinance. 3. When the evacuee property consists of a share of Power of Custo- an evacuee in shamilat land the Custodian shall be em- indin i} powered to appropriate land by order out of the shamilat according to the share of the evacuee and the land so ap- propriated shall vest in the Custodian. . allottee or lessee shall be deemed to have Right of allottec ente:ed ifi; constructive possession of the land allotted or or lessec to. pos- leased to him with effect from Kharif, 1949, but he shall be entitled to take actual possession of any part o f such {44 DispLACED PERSONS (1949 East Ph, ¢ 444 ?,fi};ficmmrmmm) ¢ XXXV!. land on which no crop is standingon the Is¢ p, 1949, and of the balance, from the 1st March, 195, 0°f"3vh:, the standing crops have been harvested by tpe Prog holder, whichever is later, but in any case by the 15t le;t 1950. Rights and obli- 5. () The present holder shall be entitled to | gations of _ the pbssessio(n )ofthe land till such date as the allottee of leseg?e under the preceding section becomes entitled to actua] Dos- sion thereof and from that date all rights, title ang in- terest in the land of such holder shall cease and, except provided in section 9. he shall not be entitled to claim ay damages or compensation on any ground whatsoever, (2) The presert holder shall, unless another rate has been or is specified in this behalf, be liable to pay rent equal to two and a half times the land revenue in addition to the cesses for the time being in force for Kharif, 1949, and be [liable to pay two and a half times the land revenue in ad- dition to the cesses for the time being in force at the time o§ entering into constructive possession in Rabi, 1950 and after.] Right of the allottee 6. The rent realized from the present holder under R e oS Shs sub-section (2) of section 5 or from his sub-lessee or actual cultivator of the land under section 8 shall be appropriated in the following order, namely — (@) towards the payment of land revenue and cesses ; (b) towards the fees of, and other expenses incur* rec(li by, the Custodian in respect of that Jand: an ; . in . *Substituted for the words “fiable topay four times the land !"’V"":;‘:ion being inforce orcustomary batai _at M jo A ) ne; i of entetit8 i Sonsiructive Possssion. for Rab, 1950 and ‘e e et At X1 of 19505 1949 : East Pb. Act XXXVIL] DISPLACED PERSONs 445 (LAND RESETTLEMENT) (c) the balance after. meetin; I L g the charges referred ttil in clauses (4) and () shall be paid to the ?j u(;g;% :; lzs;.ee,tu:i cash or, at the option of the 1 justed against a: from him to the Cust%dian. ny amount due 7. (1) When the leasc_e or allotment is in favour of Liability of the more than one person, any liability imposed by this Act shall allotee or lesse. be the joint and several liability of each such person. (2) The liability of the allottee or lessee for the pay- ment of the rent to the Custodaian shall commence from Kharif, 1950, or when actual possession is surrendered to him, whichever is later. 8. If for any reason the present holder abandons the Liability of the land held by him the liability to pay rent for Kharif, 1949, ;‘x‘mofi;‘h" and Rabi, 1950, may be enforced by the Custodian against ) ’ the sub-lessee of the present holder, or the actual cultivator of the land to the same extent and under the same pro- cedure as it could be enforced against the present holder. 9. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in a ny 1aw Termination of for the time being in force, all leases of land except such };‘g ;fi ‘i:“‘}a‘;{m leases as the Custodian may by order exempt from the of non-evacuces. operation of this section, made by a n evacuee in favour of a person other than an evacuee sha ll be deemed to have _ terminated on the 25th July, 1949, and the land shall_be deemed to have vested- under th is Act in the Custodian . with effect from the same date fr ee from all rights of the lessee or persons claiming under such lessee. 2) Where any lease is determin ed under this section there shall be paid compensation th e_amount of which el shall be determined in the m anner and in accordance wnt h. s wupen the principles hereinafter set out, that is to say:— the amount of compensat ion gan‘ be fixed @ vg;rle;;reement betw een the Custodian and the lessee, it shall be paid in accordance with s uch agreement. 446 DISPLACED PERSONS [1949 . East pp, A“"‘Xxv,' (LAND RESETTLEMENT) ere no such agreement can be regy ® v,‘['léentral Government] shall appoint g ar}gg any Subordinate Judge having JUFI'Sdicfiora‘*}r the district where the land is Situated, o j t the commencement of the Proceedingg (© j}he arbitrator the Custodjan and the pgergggo{e be compensated shall state what in they Tespeg. tive opinions is a fair amount of Con, pensation. An appeal shall lie to the District Judge 5 2i ke an a%:fgrd of an arbitrator except in cages ihflr‘; the amount thereof does not exceed the amoypg prescribed in this behalf by rale made by the ‘[Central Government]. (e) Save as provided in this section and in any rules made thereunder, nothing in any law for the time being in force shall apply to arbitratiop under this section. " (3) The compensation awarded shall be paid by the todian to the person entitled thereto according to the award : . . Provided that nothing herein contained shall affect the Liability ‘of any person who may receive the whole or any part of any compensation awarded under this section to pay the same to the person lawfully entitled thercto. Delegation. 10. The Custodjan may, by general ecial order, delegate to a Rehabijj Y> DY general or sp abilitation Authority or such officers and Xecl;sons as he consider fit, any of hjg functions under this Morument not to g4 Notwithstand; i ined i law foquire sta -, ;oranding anything contained in any la registration, ” 2™ f(_u" the time being ipn fo%ce, ito i%lstrument in writing giving effect to a transfer by the Custodian or Rehabilita- tion Authority of any land of 5 11 uire ! n evacuee shall req stamp, attestation or registration. ¥ *Substituted for ¢ne words «gy, P rganisi® i andi . e Government” by the Punjab _Reorgai 11906%. (Chandigarty (Adaptation of Laws on State ang Concurrent Subjects) Orde [ 1949 : East Pb. Act XXXVI.] DISPLACED PERSONS 447 (LAND RESETTLFMENT) 12. Except as provided in this A ) > { ct, no order ma Ordet action taken in exercise of any power conferred bdethoig et A gusion Act, shall be called i to question in any court or gefore any officer or authority. : 13. No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedi shall lie against the *[Central Government]% thep Custodliigz m“wm ?Iie%' dRiigcatl_nhtqnon Authority or any person acting under i ion in respect of anything done or purport have been done in pursuance of th.igs Act. purparted to 14, (1) The '[Central Government] may, b; notj- Pover tomako fication in the offiicial Gazette, make such ruleg’as jgxppea.r- roles. to ‘it to be necessary or expedient for putting into effect the provisions of this Act. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred by sub-section (I) such rules may provide f or all or any of the following matters, namely,— (a) the procedure to be followed in arbitration under section 9 ; (b) the principles to be followed in apportioning the cost of proceedings before the arbitrator and on appeal ; (c) the maximum amount of a n award against which no appeal shall lie; a nd (d) any incidental or sup plementary matters for which the [Central Governm ent] thinks it ex- pedient for the purpose of t his Act to provide. 15. The East Punjab Displac ed Persons Land Re- Repeal of East settloment) Ordinance, 1949, is hereby repeal but not- REVh ¥rorises. withstanding such repeal, any orders made, anything ! done or any action taken in the exe rcise of any pOWCTS conferred by or under the s aid Ordinance and any, Liabi lity incurred or proceeding com menced under. the said Ordi- nance shall be deeemed to have been made, done , taken, incurred or commen in the exercise of the powers conferrd by or under this Act. 1 i the words “State Governm ent” _ by the Punjab Reorgnisa~ tion (chasnfi';;lm%;p t:t}g of Laws on State and Concurrent Subjects) Order, 968. 1